Personal & Professional Weekly Achievements Ritual: Last Week I...

Studies in mental wellbeing and positive self-perception highlight the importance of being in touch with your day to day achievements and energy flows. Give yourself recognition and presence in your weekly rhythms, with this ritual template for reflection and celebration.

Create a supportive environment for you to celebrate the little wins, challenges, and successes in your life and work.

A ritual of reflection and acknowledgement of your achievements and steps towards bigger goals supports positive self-image and self-worth. These things are priceless, and magically percolate throughout your whole life.

What if you could look back on your week, month and year and see just how much you do achieve, day by day. Your feelings about it and the outcomes. Scan how big your time and achievements really are.

If at the end of a workweek, you are exhausted, and don't even know why...

• What if it was because of all your work that week on energy-intense, new, or unexpected projects, that you've simply forgotten about?
• Or what if it's because you're used to your workload and don't even realise how much you get done?
• Sometimes it's even one thing that week, you might have forgotten, which changed your energy that week.

Celebrate your own achievements, acknowledge your dedication and hard work, and know why you feel how you feel at the end of each week.

I started this template for myself when I was feeling down. I was feeling like I wasn't succeeding at what I wanted to. So I started browsing through my calendar from the last week and simply putting in things I did - meetings, tasks, unexpected events, how I felt about them, and the outcomes. I continued doing this and I actually felt quite surprised. I'd done so much in a week where I thought I hadn't done anything of importance.

Remind yourself, of your own great work. Support clarity of mind about what really happened - you did awesome work, you made new connections, you completed a difficult task.

Give it a try and see how you feel!

The momentum of rituals like this can help you to see what value you are always contributing. It reminds you of what you did, and helps you communicate this to other people and yourself.

Clarity in your own mind and a sense of closure on the week is a perfect way to start your weekend.

How to use:

• At the end or beginning of each week, open up your calendar and your "Last Week I..." ritual, and fill in all the events, meetings, connections, and significant tasks you did.
• Remember the social or personal occasions that you might like to add.
• Put in a feeling or feelings for each, either from the list that's in the template already, or add your own.
• Add an outcome! If there was an outcome you already know, put it in. It can help you to see the value of tasks you did, or say what you learned about an experience.
• After you've finished, spend some moments considering all the things you did that week. Was there a trend? How do you feel now that they're written down?

Support good mindsets around knowing your value, with rituals of acknowledging and celebrating your achievements.

This ritual tool is inspired by Sharon Pakir.